HAPPY New Year! At least I hope it will be for you, your friends and family members. As a community, we’ll continue to push on in 2016.

With health, we’ll continue to fight for the services at the West Cumberland Hospital, attract more doctors and nurses and continue to develop our programme to ‘grow our own’ medics.

With education, the consultation for the new Whitehaven campus should be launched imminently and huge new investments in education (mostly not from government) will begin.

With the local economy, the Moorside project continues apace as we get set to receive the largest private sector investment we have ever seen in our part of the world.

Town centre regeneration should continue with more investments identified and the fight to improve the A595 will continue. These are my priorities, but there’s a lot of work to be done in Parliament too as a member of the Environment & Climate Change Select Committee and internationally as one of the British delegates to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

There’s also the small matter of the EU referendum, likely to be in June.

Cameron costing Cumbria

Speaking of the EU, the Prime Minister’s feeble attempts to secure a PR coup look like they are costing Cumbria dearly. The EU has available funds for flood relief in the shape of its solidarity fund. Member states have to apply for this money, but David Cameron refuses to do so for fear of being seen to be asking the EU for help.

It’s a genuine disgrace when the cost of the flood damage to Cumbria is estimated to be over £600m – particularly when the government has so far offered only £40m (welcome, no doubt, but a paltry sum in truth.) I’ve written to the Prime Minister, urging him to apply for this funding: our needs must not be ignored simply so that the Prime Minister can try to save his face in a mess of his own making.

A reminder of who we are

The news regarding Haig Mining Museum is simply horrendous. The funding for this project was hard won by Pam Telford. I was happy to help with this and the work Pam has put into the place has been remarkable – nobody could have done more.

Like many people in our town, I have an ancestor entombed in the mine and the museum is a unique cultural beacon for us: it reminds of who we are, where we have come from, and of the sacrifices made by those who built our community.

I’ll continue to do everything I can to help the museum; but the latest news is devastating. I’ve asked others to help – I hope they can do so.

Faster than a speeding bullet…

I’ll be running the London Marathon again this April to try and raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The money will go to improving treatments for the condition and – eventually- the discovery of a cure. I developed the condition two weeks before the 2010 general election and the West Cumberland Hospital saved my life.

In January last year, my then 16-year-old niece developed the condition and in November last year, my 10-year-old son developed the condition, too.

Our stretched and battered health services have been magnificent throughout.

Times are tight for everyone, but if you can, please donate to the effort on my Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/Jamie-Reed7

And yes, Mo Farah is worried…